Allotments 4 All

Yippee, I have lizards on my lottie!

I think they are the "common" sort. Are these actually that common or rare?

What do they eat, presumably insects and the like. I have a million ants down there so maybe they are eating those.

Newts? Need piccie.

If they are common lizards then you're very lucky to have them David.   :) They are becoming more and more rare as the years pass. Yes they do eat insects although I'm not too sure if ants are on their list of favourites!!

Maybe Yoho is right though and they are newts.  ??? If possible could you post a photograph of them for us please? Lizard or newt we'd love to share the wildlife on your lottie with you.  :D

Found a perfect match using google, have the pictue saved but not sure how to attach.

its definately a common lizard, feel quite proud to have these guys chomping away on my pests.

You'll need a host such as Photobucket to host your picture, and then you can link it through to here. If you don't know how to do it, just ask.  :)
Or, paste the URL of the Google page, and we can link directly to the page.  ;)

Hey David I am coming down to Chislehurst and Erith bit later in the year (visiting family)  Just might try and find your lottie and pinch those PEST eating critters. ;) ;DLorna

You'll have a job catching them, they are quick ;)

Do they bite?

Oh well David. Better give that  idea up. This old girl can't run like she use to, in fact she can't run at all.  Lorna ;D

We have sand lizards in Chelmsford!  As far as I know, they scoff the likes of slugs and bugs, which is good as far as I am concerned and they can make themselves at home on my plot!  ;D

1st attempt at inserting image (of the lizard in question) hope this works!

They eat all sorts of insects, but not many things go for ants much. It's the only common lizard we have with legs (the slow worm is a legless lizard), and the third one is the sand lizard with a very limited distribution indeed.

Bit late on this topic, I know, but have been away on holiday. Fascinating reading.  :D :D :D

However, while I think it great to have lizards on your lottie (as indeed I do), one should remember that they eat a great array of prey. which includes the 'goodies' (such as earthworms, beetles and spiders) as well as the 'baddies' (such as slugs and snails).  :-\

They feed by shaking their prey to stun it before swallowing whole. Although numbers of our British reptiles are dwindling, the common lizard is still relatively common. Incidentally, the common lizard is the only reptile found in Ireland.

Sorry to change the subject slightly, but my boyfriend and I have just discovered a sloworm (? don't know how it's spelt) in his garden.
I shall be looking up more info about it tonight, but just wondered if anyone could fill me in with any interesting details and facts about them in the mean-time? What do they eat? how big do they grow? Are they completely harmless, etc?
It's very cute - just like a mini snake!  8)  I'd say it's about a foot long and one or two cm in width. Are they quite common, I've never seen these before either!

slow worm - eats lots of nasties - we have them in our lottie too.
They don't bite and are harmless. You will find they like the compost heap.

ooh I wonder if it will eat spiders and stop them coming into the house?! (apologies any arachnid fans!)
It's very cute I'm fascinated by it, he seems to be living under a tarpaulin that has a huge pile of bark on top of it! We even found a skin, so we thought it was a snake at first!

They're actually legless lizards; you can tell easily by examinging the underside. Snakes have scales that go right across the width of the belly, while slow-worms have a mass of small scales. They will also drop their tails, which is a typical lizard trick; snakes don't do it at all. They eat mainly slugs.